In the Era of Prestige TV, We’re Missing One Thing: More Cozy Comfort Shows

Television is so wonderful because it can be used in many different capacities. There are shows that can help educate us or shows that serve as a doorway into someone else’s life (creating more empathy and understanding towards others). There are compelling mysteries that excite us and have us glued to the edge of our chairs or tragic dramas that have us weeping along with the characters. Right now, it feels like we’re all pretty stuck doomscrolling on our phones and listening to news about the world falling apart.

When we turn on our televisions, it seems like the majority of the shows are action-thrillers (like Reacher or Squid Game) or heavy dramas (such as The Last of Us or Severance). Of course, these shows can be extremely entertaining, but what we’re missing right now are some good old-fashioned comfort shows that can help us all escape for a bit. We’re definitely missing the days when series like New Girl made us laugh, and this is our plea to bring back these types of comfort shows as fast as possible!

Comfort Shows, Like ‘Gilmore Girls,’ Can Help Us Feel Safe

There is a reason why comfort shows make us feel so good when we watch them. When we’re watching something that we know won’t lead to a jump scare or our heart racing, we can actually relax. We find ourselves in a safe environment that allows us to veg out and utilize our downtime in a way that feels good to our bodies and our minds. Instead of having to follow along with complex mysteries or catch every word of complicated dialogue, we can turn our brains off for a bit. This is such a great way to decompress, and that tends to be why we tuned in initially.

There’s also the idea that certain shows make us feel comfortable because we can dive into another safe environment for a bit. Gilmore Girls was such a hit because we all loved walking into the wondrous town of Stars Hollow and taking part in the fairly low-stakes world of Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and Rory (Alexis Bledel) for the span of an episode. If we were feeling lonely, catching the New Girl gang made us instantly feel like we had a group of friends (no matter how kooky they were) to hang with. Comfort shows allow an escape from our real-life worlds into one that offers much less pressure (and usually a lot of laughs at the same time).

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The 20 Best Feel-Good Shows on Netflix Right Now, Ranked

These shows are bound to make you feel better!

There Is Currently a Shortage of Comfort Shows, Such As ‘New Girl’

Right now, we are in a serious shortage of shows that actually make us feel relaxed when we watch them. Schitt’s Creek and Modern Family called it quits a while back, and many series such as One Day at a Time, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, and Pushing Daisies were all canceled way too soon. These shows created perfect environments we could escape into or just a chance to laugh with the characters for a bit. Of course, for some people, the Hallmark Channel is a great outlet for shows and movies that feel comforting. However, for others, these options are a little too schmaltzy and offer predictable plotlines that don’t truly provide any kind of stimulating content.

That means that what we’re left with are series that often rely on violence or gratuitous sex scenes to get their points across. These types of series, such as MobLand or The Boys, are entertaining, but they can also make you feel like you just sat through content that was terrifying (and only resulted in amping up your anxiety even more). High-octane action series and dramas have their place in entertainment, but it would be even better if we also had options that provided simple yet heartwarming plot points and characters that are easy to root for and fall in love with as well. New Girl was such an easy show to tune into because you always knew what you were going to get: Jess (Zooey Deschanel) getting mixed up in some kind of silly hijnks, Nick (Jake Johnson) wanting to help but generally being a doofus, and Schmidt (Max Greenfield) saying something slightly offensive, yet still somehow endearing. Even though they were fictional, these characters felt like our true friends, which helped to decrease our cortisol levels and made us feel like the world was a little bit calmer.

We’re Tired of Watching Reruns of ‘The Office’ and ‘Friends’

Because of the current lack of comfort shows, many of us have had to rely on reruns of more classic television, just to allow our brains to turn off for a bit. The Office, Parks and Recreation, and Friends have all been trusty companions during this time of the world being on fire. Even if we’ve seen each episode 100 times, it feels even more soothing for us because we know how each storyline will resolve. However, even with our need for some comfy TV, there comes a point when rewatches do tend to get a bit boring.

It’s not that there aren’t any feel-good television shows on at all right now. Shows such as Abbott Elementary and Ghosts are fun comedies that help us travel to a different place with hilarious and interesting characters. And then there are shows such as Sweet Magnolias and Heartstopper, but these options (like so many series on streaming channels) only provide us with really short seasons, as well as long breaks in between those seasons. This format isn’t nearly enough to keep that serotonin in our systems long-term. Back in the day, network channels kept us fed with plenty of episodes of these shows, week after week, and that’s what we’re missing right now in the age of streamers.

There is good news on the horizon, though. It was announced that the ultimate feel-good series, Ted Lasso, is coming back for another season (after the team said it was canceled originally). We don’t know 100 percent who will be reprising their roles yet, but the entire heartwarming ethos of the series will be welcomed with great enthusiasm when it returns. Hopefully the success of these types of shows will remind streamers and network executives that viewers are in dire need of these softer, lighter shows. Escapism is the name of the game right now, and that’s hard to do with series that solely feature car chases and torture sequences. Starting a petition right here and now for Hollywood to make more comfort shows before we all lose our minds!

Seasons 1-7 of New Girl are available to stream on Hulu in the U.S.